Reindeer Dash 5K

My sixth race this year was the Reindeer Dash 5K on Christmas Eve. I signed up for it right after Thanksgiving. I thought it would be something fun to do that was different. I really like the idea of keeping it fun but also having a good cause to benefit. It keeps me motivated. 

I had no clue when I signed up for any of these winter races that we would actually have a winter this year. But that is exactly what we are having...winter! That morning at the beginning of the race it was 27* and at the finish of the race it had gone up to 30*. During the first quarter mile it felt like my face was going to freeze off. I have never run in temps that low. I suppose I need to find some sort of cover for my face at the beginning of a race in cold weather. After a certain point you just aren't bothered by the temps any longer. In fact, you get so warm that the layers you have on you wish you didn't. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve running shirt and then my long sleeve race shirt plus a windbreaker over that, and gloves. I unzipped the windbreaker and took off the gloves during the third mile.

I enjoyed the race because I got to wish the officers located on all the street corners directing traffic a Merry Christmas. I had Christmas music playing on my phone. There were reindeer located at the start and my daughter got a big kick out of taking pictures of them. 

I ran more of this race than I did the last one. I still had to walk a bit because the cold really bothered me this time. It took awhile for me to get over it and be able to breath regularly without feeling like a coughing fit would ensue if I took too deep a breath.  A hot shower helped a great deal with the steam opening up my lungs. I changed out of the two under shirts and sports bra before we left the race location. I read that if you run in cold temps you should do that because otherwise you can get sick. I am trying to be a better runner and read things to help me. I am also trying to put them into practice. Otherwise, what good is reading them?

I started training for a 10K this week. I have the Nike+ app and it has these new "coach" training programs on it. I am going to do the 10K coach and after that I will do the Half Marathon coach to help me train for the Rocky Mountain Half we are doing in August. That is very exciting to me but I don't want to just keep running races and not run in between and never get in shape. I want to train and eat right so that I will be in top shape by August for the race. I want to run as much of it as I can. I want to improve my race time per mile, too.

I think I have figured out the weight gain. I don't think it is only the coffee that I was drinking. I have stopped drinking my smoothies every day. Those contained all of my vitamins and the other things to help keep my thyroid is good working order. So now I have put on weight, my sleep isn't as good, I am sluggish and my skin is having issues with dryness. I also think I am not drinking enough water. So I am going to start keeping better track of that and go back to drinking my smoothie each day, even if it is for lunch or in place of dinner, I will have one smoothie a day so that I get the benefits. 

My next 5K is January 4. I am praying it isn't in the 20's for that one.

Changing my life one day at a time.

Run or Dye Arlington 2013

Today I ran in my fifth 5K this year. I have one more for 2013. My oldest daughter was signed up for the race so I decided to go ahead and run with her. But she got very sick and then ended up having to work. My younger son took her place and ran instead. He really isn't a runner but he does run really fast when he does run. He has been going to the gym four times a week with his dad for the past several months. He has built up a LOT of strength in that time. He has a really hard time running at a slow pace. He is more of a sprint runner. But he is very competitive and likes to win. He said he was third until he was at the 2 mile mark and had to slow down because his lungs were hurting. I know that if he ran regularly it would build up his lungs like he is building up the rest of his body. I hope he will do that and we can run together again. I love it when my family runs WITH me.

I ran one time last week and then it froze over for DAYS. I was not able to go out and run during the rest of the time leading up to this race. I was a bit sluggish at the beginning. I did have to walk from time to time but I did my best not to allow myself to walk for very long before I set a new goal of what to run to. I would pick a "target" to reach before I would allow myself to walk. I did my best to pick a target that was far away. It is not my goal to walk a 5K. I want to run as much of it as I can. I may run slowly most of the time but I want to put forth as much effort as I am able. When possible, I would push myself to go a bit faster than I had before to make up some time from the periods of walking. 

Since this was a run where they throw colored powder at you, it got pretty messy. We didn't get as messy as we did for the Color Run in April of this year. We were a mess that day. I didn't have sun glasses today to hide my eyes so I closed my eyes as I ran through it. My son didn't realize it was going to be like that and he got a big chunk thrown into his eye, which was not fun for him. He always ended up with a bunch of it in his mouth when he tried to drink something after the race. I love doing the Color Run so I think I will stick with just ONE "color" run a year, if any. My hubby hates the mess in his Jeep afterwards.

They didn't have the miles marked and my tracker wasn't working. I never really knew when one mile ended and the other one began. I think that would have helped. It always does when I am running by myself because I can tell myself I am "this far" or I only need "this much more".  They didn't have the Turkey Trot marked either and my tracker wasn't working. It doesn't seem to want to work at the Ballpark area for some reason. Pandora did work this time. I had made a playlist on my phone and when I tried to play it things went nuts. It would play a few seconds of one song and then change, over and over again. I finally shut it off and tried Pandora. Thankfully, that worked. It is easier for me to run when I have music to listen to and keep me going.

There were quite a few parts of the race that were up hill. Some where down hill and I tried to take advantage of that time and run a bit faster. It made me think about our run in August. That half marathon is going to have a few miles that are uphill. That means I NEED to run uphill HERE to get used to it. I have heard it helps build your strength and speed if you run uphill. I need both. 

Looking at the pictures of myself makes me a bit more sad than I already am about my weight. But it will be fine when I can see how much I have lost in the next year and beyond. I will be able to see how far I have come. At least I ran the race and did something healthy. At least I am taking steps to change the way my body looks instead of just living with it or worse yet, gaining more from lack of effort. 

I will share more about my weight training in a later post. My husband gave me a workout to do and I was sore for three days afterwards....

Changing my life one day at a time.

My First Flylady Purchase

I am trying hard to get back into "flying" with Flylady. It is such a struggle for me. It is my goal to start the new year actually flying each day. To me that means doing my morning and evening routines and actually attempting each days zone instructions. So far I just read them and think to myself "I could go do that" and then don't. 

I purchased some things from the Flylady store to help me get started. There are more things I would LIKE to get from the store and will after the first of the year. One of the things I got wasn't for cleaning but it was for doing something they talk about on Flylady, drinking your water daily. I got one of the water bottles and it is GREAT. I want to get one for both the teens and one for my hubby. It will keep our water cold on bike rides and other adventures. I keep mine filled all day long and I have been drinking more water this whole week. I got the duster to help make it more fun for my daughter to do her dusting and to be a more effective job since this one actually attracts the dust instead of just moving it around. I purchased two of the Scrubba toilet brushes and the kitchen set. I also got some purple rags plus a small scrubba. You can check them out on the website for more information on what they do. 

Until next time...blessings to you.